In less than two weeks, on September 23rd and 24th, Brooklyn Comes Alive will take over Williamsburg, bringing a bevy of unique super groups, tribute sets, and one-time-only jam sessions that the multi-venue festival has become known for. Inspired by the vibrant musical communities of Brooklyn and New Orleans, Brooklyn Comes Alive will turn three fantastic Williamsburg venues within a five-minute walking radius—Brooklyn Bowl, Schimanski, and Music Hall of Williamsburg—and the surrounding city streets into a music lover’s choose-your-own-adventure. The unique homegrown event puts the focus on the musicians, curating dream collaborations and tribute groups and bringing to life artists’ passion projects. This year, Brooklyn Comes Alive’s hand-selected lineup features over 100 beloved musicians who have been carefully arranged into 35+ unique sets across the festival’s two days.
This year’s Brooklyn Comes Alive lineup features members of Umphrey’s McGee, moe., The Disco Biscuits, The String Cheese Incident, Trey Anastasio Band, Snarky Puppy, The Meters, Primus, Soulive, Lettuce, The Motet, Lotus, Railroad Earth, The Infamous Stringdusters, The New Mastersounds, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Russ Liquid Test, SunSquabi, and so many more, in addition to iconic music legends such as John Scofield, Bernard Purdie, George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville, DJ Premier, Johnny Vidacovich, and Henry Butler. These renowned musicians will perform in dozens of special sets, including tributes to the Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead, Jamiroquai, and Herbie Hancock; unique one-off bands like moe.queous and Pow! Pow! Power Trio!; and super jams led by Eric Krasno, George Porter Jr., Skerik, Dave Harrington, and more.
Brooklyn Comes Alive Announces Supergroup Formations, Daily Lineups
Today, Brooklyn Comes Alive has finally announced this year’s daily schedule, revealing the times and venue locations of the various highly anticipated sets slated to go down on September 23rd and 24th. Check out the full schedule for Brooklyn Comes Alive for yourself below, so you can start plotting the sets you want to catch on September 23rd and 24th. Two-day and single day tickets to Brooklyn Comes Alive are still available, and you can snag yours here. See you all in Brooklyn next weekend!
Beginning at noon each day, the festivities kick off at Schimanski, with Leslie Mendelson opening the festival on Saturday, September 23rd. At Schimanski, she will be followed by Midnight North Performing The Music of Crosby Stills and Nash from 1:30 – 3:00 pm, and beginning at 3:30 pm, Hayley Jane will lead her tribute to 90’s female rockers, BITCH! Women of the 90’s. Roosevelt Collier‘s Second Annual Brooklyn Get Down takes the stage just after, from 5:30 – 7:00 pm, and the highly anticipated George Porter Jr., Mike Dillion + Skerik superjam lasts from 9:30 – 11:00 pm. Beginning at midnight, KJ Sawka will play an hour-long live set, with The Crystal Method closing out the first night at Schimanski from 2:00 – 3:00 am.
Music Hall of Williamsburg will see its first sets beginning at 4:00 pm each day, with DJ Logic & Friends opening the stage, followed by Muzzy Bearr from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. James Casey & Friends will take the stage from 8:00 – 9:30 pm, and Prob Cause follows directly afterward from 10:00 – 11:30 pm. Dave Harrington & Friends performs from 12:00 – 1:30 am, with a special DJ Set from Brownie closing out the first night at MHoW from 2:00 – 3:30 am.
Festivities at Brooklyn Bowl commence at 5:00 pm on the 23rd with Natalie Cressman & Friends. Their set will be followed by Future Folklore at 6:30 pm, and the debut of Matador! Soul Sounds — a new project led by The New Mastersounds’ Eddie Roberts and Soulive’s Alan Evans — will play from 8:00 – 9:30 pm. Saturday will also see the highly anticipated The Road Goes On Forever tribute to the Allman Brothers Band —featuring Bernard Purdie, Al Schnier (moe.), Vinnie Amico (moe.), Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Soulive), Nate Werth (Snarky Puppy, Ghost Note), Brett Bass (Gregg Allman Band), Rob Compa (Dopapod), Roosevelt Collier (The Lee Boys), and Brandon “Taz” Niederauer — take over the Brooklyn Bowl from 10:00 pm – midnight. Closing out the Brooklyn Bowl for night one are DJ Premier & The Badder Band, with a two-hour set beginning at 1:00 am.
On Sunday, September 24th, festivities begin once again at Schimanski with a special solo piano set from Jon Cleary beginning at noon. The Skerik, Reed Mathis, Alan Evans, Will Blades, and Will Bernard superjam set follows directly after from 1:30 – 3:00 pm. Next up is A Tribute To Herbie Hancock — led by The Motet’s Joey Porter and featuring his Motet bandmate Garrett Sayers in addition to Snarky Puppy’s Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth, and Trey Anastasio Band’s James Casey — from 3:30 – 5:00 pm, followed by the rare John Scofield + Jon Cleary Duo set from 5:30 – 7:00 pm. New Orleans legends George Porter Jr., Henry Butler and Johnny Vidacovich will play an hour and a half set starting at 7:30 pm, and The Russ Liquid Test will play from 9:30 – 11:00 pm. SunSquabi is set to close out the festival with Jason Hann at Schimanski from 11:15 – 1:00 am.
Once again, Music Hall of Williamsburg will see their first performance at 4:00 pm, this time with Octave Cat, followed by Oktopus from 5:45 – 7:15 pm. The Pow! Pow! Power Trio! feat. Rob Compa, Chuck Jones and Adrian Tramontano takes the stage directly after at 7:45 pm. A Tribute To Jamiroquai — featuring Todd Stoops in addition to members of The Motet and Trey Anastasio Band — will play a 90-minute set from 9:30 – 10:45 pm, and then Mike Gantzer of Aqueous will take the stage with Kris Myers and Ryan Stasik of Umphrey’s McGee for Dookie at 11:15 pm, closing out the stage.
Brooklyn Bowl will open earlier on Sunday, September 24th for the rare solo piano set from Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s McGee. He will be followed by the Metropolitan Jam Grass Alliance from 3:15 – 4:15 pm and Jennifer Hartswick & Friends will take the stage directly after with a set from 4:45 pm – 6:00 pm. At 6:30 pm patrons of the Bowl will witness a rare collaborative set, featuring Marc Brownstein, Aron Mager, Joel Cummins, Mike Greenfield, Ryan Jalbert, Natalie Cressman and Jennifer Hartswick lasting from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. At 8:30 pm, moe.’s Al Schiner and Vinnie Amico will join Aqueous for the supergroup moe.queous, and then Eric Krasno & Friends will conclude festivities at the Brooklyn Bowl from 10:30 pm – 12:00 am.
Purchasing a ticket to Brooklyn Comes Alive grants you access to all three venues: Brooklyn Bowl, Music Hall of Williamsburg and Schimanski. Wristband-holders may come and go amongst the venues throughout the event, creating an indoor music festival feeling all within the heart of Williamsburg. To find out more about ticketing, VIP options, payment plans and lodging, head to the festival website.